THE LAST HARVEST

The two race strains that met in Thoreati, the
Scottish and the French, come out strongly in his
life and character. To the French lie owes his
vivacity, his lucidity, his sense of style, and his
passion for the wild; for the French, with all their
urbanity and love of art, turn to nature very eas-
ily. To the Scot he is indebted more for his char-
acter than for his intellect. From this source come
his contrariness, his cornbativeness, his grudg-
ing acquiescence, and his pronounced mysticism.
Thence also comes his genius for solitude. The
man who in his cabin in the woods has a good deal
of company " especially the mornings when no-
body calls," is French only in the felicity of his
expression. But there is much in Thoreau that is
neither Gallic nor Scottish, but pure Thoreau.

The most point-blank and authoritative criti-
cism within my knowledge that Thoreau has
received at the hands of his countrymen came
from the pen of Lowell about 1804, and was included
in " My Study Windows." It has all the profes-
sional smartness and scholarly qualities which usu-
ally characterize Lowell's critical essays, Thoreau
was vulnerable, both as an observer and as a liter-
ary craftsman, and Lowell lets him off pretty
easily — too easily — on both counts,

The flaws he found in his nature lore were very
inconsiderable: " Till he built his Waldcn ilmck
he did not know that the hickory grew near Con-
104shell sug-